Discussion Groups / British English / October 2005

A right answer, but in my view a wrong explanation, tonight on "Test the
Nation" - it was correct that the way to refer to the Palace of St James
is "St James's" rather than "St James'" - but the explanation they gave
was that this was the format for "a possessive on any noun ending in S".
Now, I was taught that this should only apply to nouns ending in a
single S (sound rather than letter) - in other words, "James's" is
absolutely correct, but "Francis's" is wrong, and should be "Francis'",
and I think none of us would say "the Joneses's house" instead of "the
Joneses' house" (although we might, perhaps, say "the Jones house" and
avoid the possessive entirely).

Others' views?